The club’s owners must see that a fascination with celebrity and glamour is no way to build the systems that make a team tick
It has not been entirely easy as the Premier League has got going again to pick up the threads. Is that manager still on the brink? Are they in crisis or resurgent? Who’s that bloke with the beard again? Perhaps most disconcerting of all was the way Chelsea swept into a 2-0 lead against Bournemouth inside 24 minutes. Weren’t they supposed to be faltering? Wasn’t there dark grumbling about Graham Potter? Hadn’t they slipped eight points off fourth?
And then Reece James, in his first game back after the knee injury that has kept him out since early October, was forced off eight minutes into the second half. The nature of the game changed, first gradually and then suddenly. Without his thrust down the right, Raheem Sterling looked far less effective.
